Local convergences and divergences in the European Union : an analysis of the process of integration

The measure of the regional disparities in the European Union was widely approached on the literature. Recent years have seen a spate of studies taking into account the spatial aspect of data in the analysis of convergence from an empirical viewpoint, or integrating spatial interdependencies from a theoretical viewpoint. In this scientific context, this paper aims to understand the spatial discontinuities at the origin of an uneven process of integration and convergence in the EU with the two last enlargements. The study shows that there are local phenomena of both marked convergence, or conversely divergence, underlying a process of uneven integration.